Who is Azeezur Rahaman?

In 2000, Azeezur "Zubair" Rahaman arrived in Melbourne with a mechanical engineering degree from Hyderabad and little else. It's a remarkable success story that, 12 years later, he runs and owns a 1000-student training institute set to expand from Melbourne to Adelaide, Perth and Malaysia.

But his ambition to win a seat on the Melbourne City Council could set these achievements in shadow, after the local government watchdog and police raided the offices of his Southern Cross Education Institute today. Mr Rahaman, 36, is suspected of being behind a batch of up to 500 dubious voter applications.

Like thousands of other young Indian men, Mr Rahaman came to Melbourne to study. He finished his masters in information technology at Swinburne, studying during the day and working nights in a petrol station. Eventually he saved enough money to start a small IT training company in 2004.

In 2007, Mr Rahaman opened the Southern Cross Education Institute in the city centre. The institute fills two floors of a Queen Street office tower. Initially, the business model was geared towards international students, but as numbers dropped off and government policies changed, Mr Rahaman switched gear and now 60 per cent of his business is childcare, aged care, computer and pathology courses, mostly state government funded.

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The business had a $7 million turnover last year and is producing about 1000 graduates and employs 110 people. The institute specialises in community-based training — visiting migrant communities in outer suburbs who find it difficult to travel to the city. In an interview with The Age yesterday, Mr Rahaman said 80 per cent of his students are getting jobs.

Mr Rahaman, a father of one who lives in the CBD with his Chinese-born wife, was one of the first candidates out of the blocks this election, distributing flyers in the inner-city suburbs before he had officially announced his team. His team is headed by lord mayor candidate Berhan Ahmed, an African-Australian community leader and 2009 Victorian of the Year. The team's deputy lord mayor candidate is city real estate agent Sunny Lu, also a former international student. The team is managed by active Australian Labor Party man and former Hobsons Bay mayor Bill Tehan.

Mr Rahaman told The Age he is close to the African communities of Flemington and Kensington and says the needs of poorer inner city communities have been neglected by the council. He said he was standing for the council "to give something back" and because no other candidate or councillor had his experience — of coming from another country, of working part time and studying. "Really I want to be there to bring that culture to the council," he said. "I don't see a single person in the council (like that)."